Re: Trees and Creation
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Mon, 09 Aug 1999 12:21:20 -0400
PADAMS@flint.umich.edu wrote:
>
> On July 27 George Murphy wrote:
>
> >"Only God can make a tree" may be cute poetry but it's lousy theology.
>
> Here is the complete poem:
>
> I think that I shall never see
> A poem lovely as a tree.
>
> A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
> Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
>
> A tree that looks at God all day,
> And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
>
> A tree that may in Summer wear
> A nest of robins in her hair;
>
> Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
> Who intimately lives with rain.
>
> Poems are made by fools like me,
> But only God can make a tree.
>
> Joyce Kilmer
>
> It is obvious that Kilmer is referring to trees that he had experienced,
> not trees in the Garden of Eden. He understood that these trees were made
> through natural ontogenetic processes, but he also recognized them as being
> creations of God. Christians routinely view ontogenetic origins in this
> way. So why is it such a difficult logical extension for them to view
> organisms made through natural _phylogenetic_ processes as also being
> creations of God? God still did it, one way or another. Seen in this way,
> Kilmer's phrase is very good theology--even for theistic evolutionists.
I plead guilty to taking the line out of context to express what seems to be the
view of some proponents of IC, progressive creation &c - that while God may do many
other things through natural processes, the creation of life had to have been done
by direct & unmediated divine action.
George
--
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/